The sad truth about Kopi Luwak coffee

Double standards

I’m a dog and I find poop fascinating. On a walk, one quick sniff at a pile of poo and I know what type of animal walked this way and how long ago. I know some dogs are so enthusiastic about poop that they like to eat it. I don’t. A nibble at the edge of a particularly appealing cowpat doesn’t count as eating it. And what dog could resist a quick taste test, when happening upon a heap of horse dung that is still steaming?

If they see me nibbling at some poo, my bipeds always say, “Clowie, leave it!” I thought they were a bit strange to dislike poo, until I saw the reaction of other humans when their dogs are tasting poop. I decided that all humans are afflicted with a phobia of poop, their responses range from mild fear to panic when they see some.

Imagine my surprise when I was told that some bipeds drink coffee that is made from beans recovered from poop! I thought they were teasing me, but it’s true and people pay a lot of money for this coffee. This is a perfect example of the double standards of humans – tell the dog off for showing too much interest in poop at the park and then go and drink poop coffee! You couldn’t make it up!

Kopi Luwak Coffee

The palm civet is a shy, nocturnal creature about the same size as a domestic cat. It has sharp claws, similar to a cat, and it climbs trees easily. It eats a variety of fruit and small mammals.

Someone in Indonesia decided to extract the coffee beans from the poop. I can find no information on who thought this would be a good idea, nor can I find how this person persuaded other people to drink the resulting coffee!

Kopi luwak coffee was rare and the quality varied. I may think it strange that humans would want to drink it, but no animals were harmed.

The sad part

A little over twenty years ago, kopi luwak coffee was introduced to Europe and America. It has gradually become more popular and more expensive. It has been featured on popular shows, such as Oprah, and in the film “The Bucket List”, leading to more demand for it. Kopi luwak could only be produced in small quantities, so things changed.

Civets are captured and kept in tiny cages, fed on a diet of coffee berries and little else. This picture is heartbreaking, but one of the least distressing I could find. These animals suffer and die because of their restricted diet. They are stressed because they are in such a confined space. Some have bad injuries. I could say more about their plight, but the cruelty is obvious.

Kopi luwak coffee that is labelled as authentic, with the claim it’s made from the poop of wild civets sells for even higher prices than other kopi luwak. We only have the word of the producer on this. There are no checks on their claims. People in the coffee world say that there is very little coffee made in the old way, by collecting excrement from wild animals, and the only way to know the origin of the coffee is to collect it yourself.

At least one plantation that sells ‘authentic’ coffee has civets in cages on its premises. They say the civets are there for research purposes and their poop is not used for the coffee they sell. True or not, I think they’re missing the point – they have wild animals in cages and are exploiting them.

What you can do

• If you drink or buy kopi luwak coffee, you can stop

• You can read the small print on that special blend you enjoy on a Sunday morning and if it contains kopi luwak you can choose a different blend

• You can help by informing other people

• You can sign this petition – http://www.thepetitionsite.com/950/570/866/stop-civet-cruelty/

• There is a Facebook page “Kopi Luwak: Cut the Crap” – https://www.facebook.com/kopiluwakcutthecrap
This campaign is being run by Tony Wild, who imported the first kilo of kopi luwak coffee to Britain and hates what is happening to animals to produce this coffee now.

• There is a document (pdf) that is being maintained as part of his campaign. It lists the companies who make a profit from kopi luwak coffee – there are a number of household names on there – https://www.dropbox.com/sh/66turi0r7tlqnqg/KfTR9BGlz7/Kopi%20Luwak%20campaign.pdf

Nice to meet you too. All the humans’ kittens buy and drink lots of (regular) coffee…she’s going to send them a link to your post so they won’t fall for the tricks those awful people use to get people to buy that stuff. That stuff isn’t coffee…its “Elixir of suffering!” (HISS)!

I didn´t know anything about this coffee … But now when i do, i feel sad … Some of us humans are cruel and evil … We seem to only think about our selves and our “needs” …

I always try to buy local food or other local products that i need …
I drink coffee but i try to by the ones that are fairtrade coffeproducts … because it helps coffee farmers and workers to improve their working and living conditions … And i want coffee to be grown organically … // Maria 🙂

Oh, Clowie, the plight of these poor civets makes me sad too… Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention, seeing as how we live in a famous coffee city (though I have never heard of this coffee,) we will be glad to spread to word! I guess the best I can offer in cheering you up is to come by our blog and see our fun car show photos! No animals were harmed!

It cheers me up to know that you’ll tell people about this coffee. I have to believe that most people who drink it don’t know of the suffering.
I’ll pop by and see the pictures later – it sounds like fun!

I saw a show on this before, the owner was filmed going around collecting poop on the plantation floor after the civets have been at it in the middle of the night. Experiences that are novel, such as this type of coffee make travel a very exciting and refreshing thing. I would leave my first trial of this coffee on an actual processing place where the poor civets are not caged up as you described, meanwhile my normal non-exotic cup of coffee will do just fine 😛

Reblogged this on Stanzes Blabla and commented:
I have heard of this, but I didn’t know it was allowed to keep civet cats in cages (before I saw a blog post about it at Rumpydog). I don’t drink coffee at all and would be too cheap to buy that expensive coffee anyways. Makes you wonder who would want to drink it, if they’d knew what it’s about. This article from Clowie’s Corner says it much better, than I ever could.

Wow, I’m not a coffee drinker, so I had not heard of it, but how typical for humans to go completely overboard in search of some product, regards of who it is harming. I’m not quite sure why we act this way, it doesn’t really make much sense.

I’m not a coffee drinker so I’ve never heard of this kind but my hubby is, I’ll have to check all the coffees he buys. I’m sure he would throw out or not buy a brand that does something as awful as this to a poor animal, that’s just plain wrong. Thank you for shedding a little light on my Wednesday morning!

Wow. I am not a coffee drinker, but I do remember hearing about this coffee before. The cynic in me read this and said “of course this would happen – it’s a product of animals and thus some jackass would exploit them for it”. I hadn’t heard of this exploitation before, but I’m glad you wrote about it. More people should know and I will definitely be sharing this.

As for the cheering up… here’s a joke that combines two things I am nerdy about: dogs and grammar.

Mrs. Smith was walking to the post office when her neighbour came up to her and said, “Hello Betty, how’s your dog? I think I saw her yesterday chasing an old man on a bike.”
“I’m afraid there’s no way that was my dog,” replied Mrs. Smith.
“Why not?” asked the neighbour. “I’m pretty sure it was your dog.”
“Well,” stated Mrs. Smith, smiling, “for one, my dog doesn’t ride a bike.”

We saw a program on the Telly Clowie about the Poop Coffee and it’s so expansive.. Who the heck in their right mind would drink poop..BOL I don’t like eating uffer animals poop 🙂 Catch ya next Wednesday xx00xx